Pictured above are Rotarian of the Day Carlisle Wroton (r), president Lorna, and Dr. James Roberts (r).
The Program:
Our speaker of the day, Dr. James Roberts, is the recently retired superintendent of Chesapeake Public Schools. Armed with degrees from ODU, he spent 49 years in the public education system in Portsmouth and Chesapeake and has been an adjunct instructor at ODU, Virginia Tech, and George Washington University. He is a former member of the Rotary Club of Portsmouth.
There is a funding crisis for the K-12 public schools throughout the state. Funding is the joint responsibility of the state and the locality. It is based upon a confusing formula which includes the number of households and the real estate tax base for the locality. While the state budget has increased 57.2% from 2008-2010 until 2018-2020, the state funding for schools during that period has declined 4.1%. Before 2008, teacher salaries increased an average of 3% per year. In 2015-2016, the average increase was 0.75%. The low pay for teachers has resulted in fewer people willing to go into teaching.
State funding is used for instructional items such including teachers, principals, and librarians. What is not covered are all of the other necessary expenses in running a school—janitorial services, school nurses, transportation, instructional materials, nutrition, building maintenance and replenishment, and school safety. These items are also crucial and school systems throughout the state challenged to provide for them. For example, school buses used to be replaced every twelve years. That has now been stretched to fifteen years. One school system in the western part of Virginia is buying buses from Norfolk Public Schools as they are “retired” from service. Another example is that with the low level of funding for school replacement is that the current schools will be in use for 200 years. An additional challenge is that most of the schools were built when the underlying philosophy was to be welcoming. In today’s environment of mass shootings, schools are now using cameras, having locked doors (from the outside), and other safety strategies all of which are expensive.
One of the underlying issues in the state funding is that when the economy crashed in late 2008, all levels of government were impacted. The school systems did what they needed to do to work within the funding provided. For example, positions were eliminated by attrition. Unfortunately, this became the base from which the state funding is now based.
A book was presented to Richard Bowling Elementary School in honor of Dr. Robert’s talk.
The Meeting:
Visitors to the club included Casey Miller the facility director for Phoenix Rehabilitation. Casey is interested in becoming a Rotarian. Al Carmichael introduced Rob Sult, a former Rotarian who has recently moved from Texas and is interested in joining a Rotary Club in Hampton Roads.
Club Business:
- President Lorna updated the Club about Jane Dembert, our former administrative assistant. She has adjusted well to living at the Gardens of Virginia Beach, 5620 Wesleyan Dr., Virginia Beach. Jane is functioning well and would welcome visits.
- Ann Morgan will be resending the invoices for dues to those whom have not paid. Please pay upon receipt.
- Angela Kerns is gathering information from past presidents or a committee chairs on their committees.
- Thanks to the generosity of Michael Desplaines at Norfolk Botanical Garden and Greg Bockheim at the Virginia Zoo for their gift baskets which are being given for the District Conference silent auction
- Bill Moore was nominated for a “Rotarian in Action” award by our club. While he didn’t win the award, he is being recognized at the District Conference for his “Service Above Self.” Thanks for all you do, Bill.
- We are still recruiting volunteers for the District Conference to serve on the Sergeant @ Arms on Saturday. A person who is on the team will help to direct Rotarians to breakout rooms, and man the doors at the plenary sessions (meals).
- Dr. Steve Jones reminded members that we are now soliciting applications from non-profits to be the third party at this year’s Suds & Buds. The applications are due on September 20.
Happy Bucks:
- John McLemore is celebrating the birth of his first grandchild—a girl.
- Sally Hartman had a wonderful trip to Alaska
- Alan Nelson has returned from a train trip across the Canadian Rockies
- Sharon Laderburg and Lois Kercher gave in celebration of Norfolk Police Department’s winning the CBS Lip Sync award.
- Michael Desplaines fessed up to not wearing his Rotary pin
- Harking back to their careers, Irv Wells offered a gift basket for the District Conference with a referee's cap and a whistle from Skip Burton who was an ACC football referee and former FBI agent Irv would chip in a pair of handcuffs
- Lorna Cochrane is happy that Bill Jonak (pictured below) was at the meeting. He has been a member of our club for 60 years.
The daily pot was won by President Lorna but she did not win the big pot.